The present invention relates to systems for hydraulic leak detection, and, more particularly, to systems and methods for detecting a leak in a hydraulic fluid system by calculating a leak detection level of a reservoir based on a current temperature of the hydraulic fluid during operation of the system.
Vehicles (such as aircraft or automobiles) and machines (such as cranes or presses) using hydraulic systems to move or control objects often experience hydraulic fluid leaks in the lines, pumps, or actuators typically included in the hydraulic system. Conventional leak detection systems typically use fixed hydraulic reservoir levels as fault reaction levels to determine whether a leak has occurred and to isolate the leak. These fixed fault reaction levels are constant hard coded values in software used by the leak detection system. By using fixed fault reaction levels, conventional leak detection systems often allow excessive fluid to be lost before the system determines a fault reaction level has occurred (e.g., current reservoir level is below the fault reaction level) and a corresponding leak detected.
Certain conventional leak detection systems, such as the system on Boeing 777 aircraft, sense a temperature of the fluid in the reservoir during servicing of the hydraulic system. The sensed temperature is used to adjust an amount of fluid added to the reservoir by a technician to compensate for current environmental conditions that may cause fluid expansion or contraction in the reservoir. However, these conventional leak detection systems do not adjust the fixed fault reaction levels to compensate for fluid expansion due to temperature when detecting a leak in the hydraulic system, resulting in fluid loss where the fixed fault reaction levels are set too high.
Therefore, a need exists for systems and methods overcoming the problems noted above and others previously experienced for detecting a leak in a hydraulic fluid system.